Author Archive for burn magazine

Page 3 of 311

Wiktoria Wojciechowska

Sparks

[ EPF 2017 – HONORABLE MENTION ]

Sparks is a multi-dimensional portrait of a contemporary war in Europe, forgotten but still actual, the war in Ukraine. Ukrainians are fighting against the separatists, who are Ukrainians as well, driven by Russia’s influence and support. The core of the project is meeting victims of the war and dealing with aspects of the conflict like its influence, the impact on the environment and the lives of ordinary people, from late 2014 until 2016.

Vitaliy (Victor), 29, worker, picture was taken after he spent 12 months in the war zone, January 2016, Ukraine.

Roman, 18, student of marketing, picture was taken after he spent 6 months in the war zone, January 2015, Ukraine.

A car bombarded by an B-21 Grad – one of the most unpredictable weapons. Hirs?ke ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine.

A bridge in Semenivka – one of the first front lines. Semenivka, ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine.

The Center of Culture of Semenivka after the shelling. ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine,.

“The squad of nine killed and eight wounded.? Most of the voluntary soldiers during the first months of the war were not registered. Therefore it is hard to estimate the actual number of deaths and injuries. Collage on picture from the mobile phone’s archive of one soldier. 2015, Ukraine.

Trenches. The grounds of the Donbass region in Ukraine have big reserves and sources of coal, mercury and salt. All of the scenery is dominated by mining heaps and abandoned factories. Military forces are stationed in mine buildings. Hirs’ke, ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine.

Trenches. The grounds of the Donbass region in Ukraine have big reserves and sources of coal, mercury and salt. All of the scenery is dominated by mining heaps and abandoned factories. Military forces are stationed in mine buildings. Hirs’ke, ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine.

“The squad of nine killed and eight wounded.? Most of the voluntary soldiers during the first months of the war were not registered. Therefore it is hard to estimate the actual number of deaths and injuries. Collage on picture from the mobile phone’s archive of one soldier. 2015, Ukraine.

The title Sparks refers to the burning pieces of missiles that mercilessly pierce the walls of people’s homes. The light of explosions reflects in faces and memories of the victims. History is told in unconventional way using documentary photography, portraits, collages, videos and collected materials from the soldiers.

Fire. ATO zone (war zone), March 2015, Ukraine.

Chawa. Soldier on leave in his hometown, December 2014, Lviv, Ukraine.

Chawa, 32, philosophy graduate, PR specialist, picture was taken after he spent 6 months in the war zone, March 2015, Ukraine.

Garry, 34, music DJ, picture was taken after he spent 3 months in the war zone, January 2015, Ukraine.

Andriy, 19, college student, picture was taken after he spent 9 months and 21 days in the war zone, January 2016, Ukraine.

Portraits of young, non-professional soldiers form the backbone of the project. They went to fight in their sneakers, with weapons stolen from a museum, with all the fears and problems that any of us may encounter. They left their previous identities and occupations: philosopher, mechanic, astronomer, music DJ, bank assistant or high school students – none of them were prepared for what they were to experience. Whoever survives, is no longer the same person.

Sparks is still an ongoing project with the aim to depict next the changes which are happening in the country, consumed by war.

Short Bio

Photographer and Multimedia artist, Born in Lublin, Poland. Graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. In 2015 she became the Winner of Oskar Barnack Leica Newcomer Award and received awards for her project “Short Flashes” – portraits of drenched cyclists captured on the streets of metropolises in China. Nominated for: Joop Swart Masterclass 2016, Unseen Young Talents, Lucie Foundation Emerging Artists, Visura Grant, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and Foam Paul Huf Award. She took part artist residencies in Iceland, China and France. Her works were presented during the solo exhibitions and international art and photo festivals, published in magazines: British Journal of Photography, L’Oeil de la photographie, Vice, Leica Fotografie International, FT Weekend Magazine, Guardian.

Her first book “Short Flashes” published by Bemojake came out in May 2016.

Sarah Pabst

Zukunft

[ EPF 2017 – HONORABLE MENTION ]

I was still standing on a northern corner.
Moonlit winter clouds the color of the desperation of wolves.
Proof of Your existence? There is nothing but.
(Franz Wright)

Between 1933-1945 Germany and many parts of Europe were dominated by Nazism and World War II. 72 years later, the traumatic experiences of this period are still present in Europe. Memories are associated with pain, violence and threat. In Germany in particular, this legacy took the form of guilt in post-war generations, ashamed by the events and their place in history. This work is traversed by that history. My grandparents survived the war and just as many of their generation they have passed away and now their memories will soon be part of the past.

My niece Reem, half Israeli, half German, dressed up as princess.

Flowers on a grave.

Letter my grandfather wrote as a prisoner of war, 1945, in France.

My mother, three months after my brother suddenly died.

My sister Anna and her family. Her husband Ran is Israeli, they have three kids. During Nazi Germany her whole family would have been deported. Above: The Prison where my great-grandfather was a political prisoner during Nazi Germany.

My brother Milan and fragments of a letter of my grandfather. Nine month later he died of sudden cardiac death.

Forest next to my parents house. In 1944, my grandfather tried to escape from the German army together with Rumanian war prisoners. They tried to run through a forest towards the Americans. They were caught, the prisoners shot and he sentenced to death by hanging in the next morning. In the same night, the Americans arrived and he survived.

A photo of my grandfather’s archive, a german plane in Russia. The dots resemble the holes in my inherited memories.

I always ask myself, what if. What if I had been born at the same time as my grandmother, what if the Waffen-SS had hanged my grandfather for running away with young Rumanian prisoners of war, what if the US-troops had arrived some hours later? Future is unpredictable, things can turn either way. What if my sister had been married to a jew not now but 80 years ago? And questions one can’t answer – Why are people capable of deporting children, men, women, entire families to their sure death?

A small piece of a photo of the bombing of Kiel out of a book I found on the streets of Buenos Aires on World War II, intervened by the dots that resemble the holes in my inherited memory.

My younger sister Lea. After the war my grandmother waited for her father, a political prisoner of the Nazis, to come back home. American soldiers occupied her house. It was a dangerous time for a young woman alone. She was lucky and an officer saved her from being raped by another soldier. Lea very often reminds me of my grandmother – both at the same time fragile and incredibly strong.

A bunker, left over of German occupation in Zeeland, Netherlands. They stand like silent testimonies in the landscape.

A photo my grandfather took in 42 in Russia. The dots resembles the holes in my inherited memory.

Graves with the inscription “unknown” in German in a cemetery in Engelskirchen, Germany, of World War II. Engelskirchen is a small town where I grew up. It was heavily bombed shortly before the end of the war.

My brother’s eldest daughter Lina playing at a creek close to my parent’s house. In that moment, her childhood was still perfect.

My grandfather (6th from the left) in 1942, somewhere in Russia. The dots in the picture reflect the holes in my inherited memory.

My project is a series of questions, of a past that lives in us, of wounds we inherit from our forefathers. I heard their stories of life, suffering, hunger, guilt and death, and not only obedience but also resistance against the Nazi regime. Finally, these memories, their memories, became part of mine. Through them, I build and shape my own ones, the past, the present and thereby, also the future.

Small paper boats folded on New Years Eve with wishes for 2016. They are a symbol as well of me living 12000km away from my native country. Maybe I needed the distance to be able to photograph my families’ story.

A small piece of a photo of a book I found on the streets of Buenos Aires on World War II, intervened by the dots that resemble the holes in my inherited memory.

Birds cover a winter sky. My grandmother always said that the bombs sometimes looked like pearls falling down from the sky, blinking in the sun. When they fell on her family’s house, she was alone, getting ready for bed and survived my miracle.

The house where I grew up. During Nazi Germany, the houses were used as offices by high ranking officers. Afterwards, they stood empty for many years, belonging to the municipality. First thing my father did when they started renting it was to cut the flagpole in the garden.

My brother Milan and his youngest daughter. My grandmother had lost two brothers in the war. As a child I listened to her stories, saw her grief and was always scared my brother would not come back. Many years later one of my biggest horrors would become reality. He died of sudden cardiac death in September 2016.

My father wearing a white shirt. To me, the white shirt was always a symbol of my childhood. My grandfather and the prisoners wore the white shirts as a sign of peace when they tried to escape towards the Americans.

A firework explodes on the New Year’s eve of 2016. When I took the photo I still didn’t know it was going to be the hardest and most painful year of my life so far.

My grandfather in 1938, 19 years old.

In September 2016 my brother died of sudden cardiac death. Suddenly, future came down on us. This project is dedicated to him.

Short Bio

Sarah is a German-born (1984) documentary photographer and painter based in Buenos Aires, Argentina since 2013. Besides her personal intimate work she mainly focuses on women and identity topics. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Her work has received international recognition being a finalist in Arles’ Voies Off, Athens Photo Festival, Organ Vida Festival, Nano Festival and the Gomma Grant, all 2017. She was nominated for the JS Masterclass twice. She was a winner of the Portfolio Revisions at FoLa and selected twice for Descubrimientos Photo España. In 2015 she won a 3rd Prize at the POY LATAM and the Canon Profifoto Grant 2014. Her work was published in California Sunday Magazine, GUP, Bloomberg, Vice, Lensculture, Le Monde Dipl., and Juxtpoz, among others.

She owns a masters degree in Fine Arts and Spanish (University of Cologne and Wuppertal, 2011) where she also worked as an adjunct lecturer from 2012-15.

Related Links

Aleksey Kondratyev was the recipient of the 2017 Fujifilm/Young Talent Award for this essay. This honor recognizes photographers under 25 and grants $5,000 from Fujifilm to continue the work.

Aleksey Kondratyev

Ice Fishers

[ FUJIFILM/YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2017 WINNER ]

For generations, Kazakh fishers have set out on to the frozen Ishim River in the hope of catching fish beneath the ice. The Ishim flows through the country’s capital, Astana, a high-rise, futuristic city that was built essentially from scratch in the 1990s when Kazakhstan started to benefit from the exploitation of its oil reserves. It’s supposed to be an emblem of post-Soviet modernity, a hallmark of the country’s nationhood.

Many of these fishermen venture on to the ice, braving temperatures that often reach -40 degrees (north-central Kazakhstan is the second coldest populated region in the world, after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia). While they fish, they protect themselves from the harsh weather with salvaged pieces of plastic, patched together from discarded packaging or rice bags that you can find outside markets selling western, Chinese and Russian goods.

I was interested in examining the aesthetic forms of these improvised protective coverings and the way in which they functioned as inadvertent sculptures. I chose to focus on the materials and their surfaces as signifers of underlying global in influence and the improvisation that occurs as a result of economic necessity.

Kazakhstan was once a nomadic country, and vestiges of that way of life still exist despite the country’s embracement of modernity. These ice fishers improvise and adapt to their environment in ingenious ways, just as their forebears did.

Short Bio

Aleksey Kondratyev (b. 1993 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) is a photographer based in Los Angeles. His work examines the cultural conflation and diversion between the West and post-Soviet spheres of identity. Kondratyev’s work has been exhibited at the Neue Schule für Fotografie, Berlin, Germany, the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome, Rome, Italy, and Galleria Foto-Forum in Bolzano, Italy. He recently completed a fellowship at FABRICA, Benetton’s Communication Center and is a current M.F.A. candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles

Related Links

Antoine Bruy was the recipient of the 2017 Emerging Photographer Fund and was granted $10,000 for this essay. Burn Magazine revolves around the EPF and it is our most important curatorial contribution to the oftentimes chaotic landscape of photography today. Most importantly, our mission is to give recognition to the finest emerging authors out there and to provide some funding to keep going and to continue making a mark.

Antoine Bruy

Outback Mythologies: The White Man’s Hole

[ EPF 2017 WINNER ]

Everything starts about hundred years, in 1915, when the New Colorado Gold Prospecting Syndicate, consisting of a Mr Jim Hutchison, his 14 years old son William and two other men had been unsuccessfully prospecting for gold out in the middle of nowhere in South Australia. The young Willie had been left in camp to look after their supplies but disobeyed orders and wandered off to search for water around the foothills of a nearby range. There was a degree of apprehension among the men when he failed to turn up after dark. But a short time later, he strode into camp with a grin on his face. Over his shoulder was slung a sugar bag full of opal. The catalyst for the existence of the future town of Coober Pedy had been discovered.

Phil in Peter’s Mine, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Excavator, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Danny aka “Hollywood”, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Swampy’s Front Yard, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Crack, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Garry, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Spaceship, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Rabbit’s Bedroom, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Today in Coober Pedy, the work is secluded. Climatic conditions almost unbearable. Each prospecting gives place to an uninterrupted broom of machines of all kinds and noises coming to populate the emptiness of the land. In an iterative way, men dig white mountains to draw most of the time only a few precious dust. The Australian town of opal is isolated on the edge of the red lands of the Outback. The hamlet experienced the golden age of rock mining in the 60s to 80s, when the price of diesel was cheap.

Souvenir Store, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Opal Dealer, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Sign, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Mullock Heap, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Father Bryan, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Dean, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Mine Entrance, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Juan, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Today, the mining enclave seems totally disaster-stricken. And yet, some of its inhabitants have taken up residence underground, in artifact concretions called dug-out. The population is the guardian of myriad holes like as many thousand stories. It is estimated that around 750,000 to 3 million holes have been dug around the city. The town tries hard to reconvert itself in the tourism by forging a past and hosts from time to time shooting of international films. Coober Pedy makes a clean sweep of personal past to create a collective story.

“The White Man’s Hole” is the second chapter of an on-going project titled “Outback Mythologies” consisting of six chapters all taking place in the Australian Outback.

Flying Saucer, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Dave aka “Swampy”, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Chicken Wire, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Garry’s Junkyard, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Judy and Rick, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

George and Suzy’s Bedroom, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Paul, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Exploded Truck, Coober Pedy, Australia, 2016.

Short Bio

Antoine Bruy (1986) is a french photographer graduated from the Vevey School of Photography in Switzerland in 2011. His work studies people and their relationship to privacy, their physical environment, and to the economic and intellectual conditions that determine them. His work has been shown in group shows: Los Angeles, New-York, Paris, Dhaka, Barcelona, Seoul, Angkor. Bruy has been awarded LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, Getty Images Emerging Talent Awards, Critical Mass 2014 and PDN’s 30 in 2015. His photographs have been featured in publications including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, WIRED, Slate, The Huffington Post and Le Monde. He is currently based in Lille, France.

Related Links

The Emerging Photographer Fund 2017

Antoine Bruy

Outback Mythologies

EPF 2017 WINNER – $10,000

Everything starts about hundred years, in 1915, when the New Colorado Gold Prospecting Syndicate, consisting of a Mr. Jim Hutchison, his 14 years old son William and two other men had been unsuccessfully prospecting for gold out in the middle of nowhere in South Australia. The young Willie had been left in camp to look after their supplies but disobeyed orders and wandered off to search for water around the foothills of a nearby range. There was a degree of apprehension among the men when he failed to turn up after dark. But a short time later, he strode into camp with a grin on his face. Over his shoulder was slung a sugar bag full of opal. The catalyst for the existence of the future town of Coober Pedy had been discovered.

The 2011 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded toIrina Werning for her essay ‘Back to the Future’.

In 2012 three Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Matt Lutton for his essay ‘Only Unity’ and
two minors to Giovanni Cocco for his essay ‘Monia’ and to Simona Ghizzoni for her essay ‘Afterdark’.

In 2013 four Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Diana Markosian for her essay ‘My Father The Stranger’ and
three minors to: Iveta Vaivode for her essay ‘Somewhere on Disappearing Path’,Oksana Yushko for her essay ‘Balklava: The Lost History’ andMaciej Pisuk for his essay ‘Under The Skin; Photographs From Brzeska Street’.

In 2014 two Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Alessandro Penso for his essay ‘Lost Generation’ and
one minor to: Birte Kaufmann for her essay ‘The Travelers’.

In 2015 the Emerging Photographer Fund was awarded to Danila Tkachenko for ‘Restricted Areas’, and
the FujiFilm Young Talent Award to Sofia Valiente for ‘Miracle Village’.

In 2016 the Emerging Photographer Fund was awarded to Annie Flanagan for ‘Deafening Sound’, and
the FujiFilm Young Talent Award to Aleksander Raczynski for ‘Views’

—

Editor’s note:

I cannot express my thanks enough to Alessia, Newsha, Teun, Jamie and Wayne. They worked together to finely tune their choices, looked at the finalists from every angle and awarded the EPF grants to the photographers they felt most deserving. Of course, once it got down to the finalists, choices became extremely difficult, but that is a given… and they did an admirable job. Thank you.

A heart felt thank you also to Fujifilm for making it possible for the EPF to keep focus on the future generations, the young ones, the ones with a vision already making a mark now… and just might make another jump soon…

Burn Magazine revolves around the EPF. Our most important curatorial contribution
to the oftentimes chaotic landscape of photography today. By choosing a jury whose lifetimes have been spent in looking
at photographs and making photographs, we try to give our Burn readers a distilled version of the best work of all that
flows before their eyes everyday.

Most importantly our mission is to give recognition to the finest emerging authors out there and to provide some funding to at least
a few to keep going and to continue making a mark. Our previous winners prove this is not in vain.

Many thanks especially to my EPF team Anton Kusters, Diego Orlando, and Francesca Gennari.
First off, they must deal with me!! Never easy. In all seriousness, they all show amazing dedication to the spirit of
doing something which just feels good. To provide a platform for the up and coming.

Special thanks to Susan Meiselas of the Magnum Foundation. Nobody on the planet is more dedicated to allowing new talent to develop.

What is happening behind bars and closed heavy iron doors of the prison cells? Is it like we used to see at the movies? Or not? Researching daily life of the prisoners at the famous Belgrade County Jail, you can meet and feel energy of the other dimension. Where the piece of sky above the backyard is the only freedom prisoners can see. For a long time. I was making this story almost three years together in cooperation with Belgrade County Jail Treatment service, as a regular activity in the treatment of the prisoners through art…. Belgrade County Jail is the biggest of that type at the Balkans, located couple of miles from Belgrade downtown. Jail include prison section with 300 inmates serving their sentences for various type of crimes. I was making my story at the restricted cell block called “5-1”, were prisoners are locked for 22 hours including two hours they can spend at the fresh air. This story is the first in the history of Serbian photography that showcase prison life without censored details, identities… Real life behind bars, as it is.

Bio

Igor Čoko was born in Knin, Croatia in 1975. He holds a degree in Ethnology and Anthropology. In his role of visual anthropologist, he uses his camera to capture and explore the sensibility of the street life, its people and life of stigmatized social groups. He is a editor in chief at the Grain photo magazine that showcase street and documentary photography. His photographs are published in leading magazines and newspapers from former Yugoslavia states and Europe, and thematic street photography e magazines and websites around Globe. He exhibited his work in Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Italy, Greece, USA, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania. He lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia

Related Links

The strong, penetrating sound of a whistle created by the wind entering the windows of the shelter would never leave my head. It will forever stay in my ears. The streets became rivers. I have lived in Puerto Rico my whole life and I have lived through other strong hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico during my lifetime, but I had never seen anything like Maria.

Loíza, a coastal town in Puerto Rico, where 298 houses were totally destroyed, and it is estimated that Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane in the last 100 years to hit Puerto Rico, affected an estimated one thousand homes.

Houses were suddenly flooded with water because of heavy rains and the raging, overflowing rivers. Wooden houses were totally destroyed. Huge lines formed, taking six hours to buy 20 dollars of gasoline, frustrated attempts to get water, the lack of communication because the majority of the cellular antennas fell and the collapse of the whole electric power service in the country brought Puerto Rico the world’s attention.

The sun begins to beat down hard on the exposed skin, while some of the inhabitants of this town enter their roofless houses. The sheets from a baby’s crib flutter in between pieces of glass from a door that exploded, books everywhere, walls streaked with mud, people with watery eyes, but smiling. These are some of the descriptions of what life is now like in the town of Loíza. Founded by “cimarrones” (African slaves and descendants of escaped African slaves), it is one of the 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico; it is one of the poorest towns with the largest black population and a high crime rate.

As I walked through the flooded streets I felt something on the floor, then I realized that there were electric wires lying on the floor covered by rainwater that is now mixed with black sewage. The only vehicles that can pass through the streets are pick-ups and high buses, or you can walk with boots to avoid cutting yourself with debris from the hurricane.

The lack of oxygen for those who have respiratory problems, the lack of medicines and the lack of professional medical services is the current living situation of patients bedridden in Loíza’s shelters.

Between leafless trees and large deforestation, a group of children in Los Richard neighborhood stop me and ask me to photograph them. I tell them to keep playing, so they continue passing a ball to each other, full of energy and happiness without any apparent worries.

Some people stop in the middle of a river, the Rio Grande de Loíza, with the hope of getting a phone signal so that they can call their relatives to let them know they are alive.

After the hurricane, peace does not reign, problems begin to bloom and the discomfort increases. Not having any clothes to change, sleeping in a space that is not your home (if you’re lucky), and if the mosquitoes let you sleep, because there is no fan that can somewhat protect you from the them, then having to lay awake thinking that at any moment downpour could fall, as is the norm in the tropics, and soak your house roofless again.

This is how they now exist. When everyone knows that they are people who feel, drink, starve and smile, nonetheless.

Bio

Álvaro Aponte-Centeno has a variety of formal trainings as an artist, including music education at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, film theory and communication courses at the University of Puerto Rico.

He has taken masters courses in cinema at Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV de San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, as well as having taken masters courses in Puerto Rican and Caribbean history and literature at the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. He began his career making television documentaries for the Puerto Rican public television channel, in which he served as editor, cinematographer and director.

He has received the Best National Director award and Best Short Film award 3 times at the Puerto Rico International Short Film Festival.

Recently he has begun to explore photography as a language, and has been privileged to have the Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey, as a mentor. Right now, he is developing different photographic projects in the style of documentary photography.

This series is about the everyday life of young people in the province, about a way of everyday life where life drugs and alcohol are present, about the days that go unnoticed and they aren’t really any different, whether it is a weekday or a regular working day. I’ve started taking pictures quite a long time ago. And I can’t say why and how, I do not know, just at some point, I realized that the moments, which at first glance are quite ordinary for someone, are really important and unusual for me. Such a usual life, one just needs to cover, because it can be interesting for others. I do not know if the viewer needs to see these photos. Sometimes it seems to me that no – they’re too personal because I’m not a third-party viewer, because I’m also part of this everyday life.​

Bio

Nazar was born in Kolomyia. He graduated from the Kiev College of Construction, Architecture and Design with a degree in architecture and the Siauliai College in Lithuania with a degree in construction. As a photojournalist works with Ukrainian and foreign agencies. Nazar lives in Kiev, Ukraine

Related Links

Sixmille is the post code of Charleroi. An ancient industrial city in Belgium, called “The black city”. Formerly covered in coal dust, Charleroi is particular, strange, awkward. A small town where almost everybody knows each other. And here I am, coming from the outside. Discovering a fascinating world, a universe completely different than what I used to know. They let me come, knowing I was a photographer. I came back the next weekend, and the weekend after that… Then every time I could. I started to live with them. To follow their routine, to enter in their privacy. And their daily life. It became mine. I became one of them. They became my family. A world made of parties, lies, laughs, weed, troubles, excitements, manipulations, betrayals, dreams and derision, alcohol… A world build around the present moment. We were enjoying life, fully. An african mentality on the european territory. An way more authentic world then the one I knew before. Intense. The one that awakens instincts. The one that shows what adrenaline really is. A world that challenges everything.Reality. No. Your reality. A love story is born there. Between me and one of them. Django. Immersed and overwhelmed by so many things… Let me introduce you the rapper group, Madil City Gang.

Bio

Sarah Lowie studied Photography, screenprinting and engraving at 75 in Brussels, Belgium and during her last year she SIXMILLE. In June 2016, she exhibited for the first time SIXMILLE in Contretype. The work has also been showed in “Boutographies” in Montpellier.

Related Links

‘Down by the Hudson’ is an ongoing project, a record of Caleb’s walks and interactions – mostly along a 3-mile strip of Main Street – in Poughkeepsie, NY. Poughkeepsie is a small city – population around 32,736. Approximately 19% live below the poverty line. Recent years have brought a great deal of economic hardship to this lively, character-filled place. Some people attribute this to the downsizing of IBM’s local headquarters. Others say that fault lies with the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall, or the additions to the highway system, both of which have de-emphasized the role of Main Street. Some blame local colleges – Vassar, Marist, the Culinary Institute – for their lack of engagement with the community. In any case, Poughkeepsie is still a beautiful, resilient city with beautiful, interesting people. Lots to learn from them, no question about it.

Bio

Caleb Stein, (b.1994) graduated from Vassar College in 2017 with a degree in art history. He has interned at Christie’s Auction House and for Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden (2015-2017). He continues to run Gilden’s Instagram and is currently in pre-production on a documentary on Gilden. His work has been featured in Hamburger Eyes, The Heavy Collective, LensCulture, and Creative Quarterly and has been exhibited in group shows in Portland and Los Angeles. He lives in Poughkeepsie, NY with his partner.